Ins won鈥檛 total 2002 K1200LT motorcycle, Ins Co. It鈥檚 been 5 months at their certified shop, they won鈥檛 total

My Insurance Nightmare / Still Walking

Hey guys, My 2002 K1200LT motorcycle, fell off loading ramp, contacted my Insurance Co. The one that will give you the name of lower priced competitor. It bounced from adjuster to adjuster. I鈥檓 having to explain damaged in detail over and over. I left it at the BMW shop who did not want to work on it because of frame being bent. Insurance company felt it was not. The estimate was over $10,000. WOW. Ins. offered me a check of $4000 or they could move it to one of their certified shops. It was moved. One day it鈥檚 ready within hours it鈥檚 not ready. Now going on 5 1/2 months still not fixed. Or should I say about 50%. Every excuse in the book. Now that their (chop shop) has made bad thing worse, now they ask me where would I like the bike to be transferred for further repair. I was told to tell them to total the bike butt hey still want to send it to another shop. To be honest at this point this bike scares me to many hands repairing it. Please give me some leverage to get them to say uncle and just total the thing out. Thank you PS no their cycle ins does not cover temp rental. Book is $12000, Still making payments.

That sucks. I know. I went thru a similar experience related to a theft of one of my bikes.

I don't know where you live, but in Illinois they have the IL dept. of financial and professional regulation, within that there are several divisions, one of them being insurance. You can file a complaint against your insurance provider. They are kind of like the "better business bureau" for consumers with insurance problems.

Once the sheriffs dept. declared my bike "unrecoverable", (about 5 weeks after the theft) I had to fight my agent on everything, (mostly the value) I had just had the bike completely re-done (motor stroked and all new paint), and it appraised for 13,500...he was stuck on wholesale at 9 grand. Plus, they had to do their own "internal" investigation and appraisal, which takes....."a little while".

After 3 months of arguing with them, I suggested that I was thinking of having the IL dept of insurance review my claim. I had a check for 12,500 (I settled for 13,000, minus my 500 deductible) in less than 2 days. Plus, I don't know if this is a state or federal thing, but the insurance company also pays the sales tax (up to the value of your old bike) and the registration fees on your next bike.

I hope your state has an office similar to this, as it seemed to do the trick for me. What I can tell you for sure, is that the call to them, and any action they take is free to you, they are a state funded office. Unfortunately, you'll have to explain everything in detail once again, but they'll at least be able to give you a professional, legal answer as to what your rights are, and hopefully put some "heat" on your insurance provider.

You should do a commercial for the insurance company who's On Your Side. Maybe they'll pay you enough to get another bike.

You could be on TV saying something like, "Life comes at you fast. Covered repairs shouldn't come at you slow."

But seriously, you won't get anything these days w/o an attorney. Attorneys drive up insurance costs, but some [discount] insurance companies force clients to use attorneys.

GET A LAWYER to tell you how to proceed from here.